


Tag Team

by BlackBirdAolen



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020), Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII Series
Genre: Archylte Steppe, Banter, Cie'th, Cocoon, F/F, Fal'Cie - Freeform, Fighting, Monsters, Pulse - Freeform, Silly little fic, l'Cie, oerba
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 10:06:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29383200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackBirdAolen/pseuds/BlackBirdAolen
Summary: When going to Oerba, you have to be prepared to fight your way through the Steppe. But that is nothing that can't be done.
Relationships: Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII)/Tifa Lockhart
Kudos: 3





	Tag Team

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted some sugary niceness.

“You’re actually intending to do this.” Tifa stared down into the valley in front of them. It had been one thing following Lightning through the fascinating, floating world of Cocoon, but this here, this was an entirely different matter. Pulse, the world that lay beneath, was far bigger and more vibrant, had an actual sky, had Cocoon just floating up there like a second moon. But still, something about this world felt utterly alien after Cocoon, which already felt like a strange cradle.

“Well, this is just it. We don’t really have another option of getting to Oerba.” Lightning was kneeling on one of the ridges and observed the landscape in front of them through a pair of binoculars. Worry creased her brow, but otherwise, her body language told that she was relatively relaxed, if ready to strike at a moment’s notice. “The Fal’Cie of Pulse are currently having a field day of getting into everyone’s way and threatening to smack everything even remotely looking like it wants to skip this part of Pulse to get from Cocoon to Oerba out of the skies. It is another test of theirs, without them having to create more L’Cie.”

Tifa huffed softly and sat down for a moment. “Okay. Fal’Cie were the big ones, L’Cie the changed humans… and I’m forgetting something that shouldn’t be taken too lightly, right?”

“Cie’th. Humans who failed to fulfill their Focus. I would very much like to avoid sharing their fate at some point in the future, even if my Brand was lifted. I can definitely do without you getting branded.”

Tifa gave no immediate answer to that, but she did feel a nice warmth rising inside of her. Lightning didn’t often show that she was going through intense emotions, as she was used to being rather controlled from being a soldier, but there were moments her care showed. Even if she usually came off as rough around the edges, as uncaring and numb even. But that was just the blathering of someone who didn’t want to look any deeper.

In truth, Lightning probably cared too much about many of the people around her, worried about things that shouldn’t be her worry at all. Sometimes, when Lightning was at ease – which was a rare moment indeed – it was obvious just how tense she was, how uncomfortable the thought of leaving anything up to chance was to her. After how the Fal’Cie of Cocoon had toyed with her, it was only understandable that she wasn’t willing to risk anything, even now. Even when the Fal’Cie had conceded that humans didn’t need their every intervention at every juncture of their lives.

“Tifa, have you fought against super-sized enemies before?”, Lightning asked, pointing towards what had previously seemed like a superbly oversized mixture of lizard and turtle to Tifa. From their vantage points, it was easy to see that they slowly moved across the canyon and should be easy enough to avoid. Except for a single detail that wasn’t pleasant at all. One of those creatures had stuffed itself into a small chasm that they would need to pass through on their way to Oerba.

“Yes, but not against those. And I usually had three other people with me to support me, so I’m unsure how this will go.” She took the binoculars Lightning offered to her and focused on the Long Gui. “How do you usually fight against them?”

“We build our strategy around quickly staggering it and bringing it to its knees. We usually also have to employ a ton of magic to get it down. It should work well enough between the two of us, but I will not lie. This one might be tough, even knowing that we both can hit hard and take punishment beyond what many others could take.”

Tifa chuckled quietly and then did a cursory sweep of the Steppe. “I also see us getting attacked from above. What do you call those?”

“Amphisbaena. Or flying bastards, when you use Fang’s classifications.” Lightning sighed deeply. “But they usually can be dealt with quick enough, after they are staggered. First magic, then hit them hard with afflictions and shut down every single attack. Something like that. But in variations, such strategies work on everything.” Lightning gave a weak smile when Tifa looked towards her. “It is just a matter of finding out how you can bring them down the quickest. Some monsters will react viciously towards their defense being broken through, but most become comparably helpless. As, for example, the Long Guis. As soon as they come down on their knees, they can’t stomp anymore or use Quake. Which is already a huge relief.”

“I can imagine. Quake is such an annoying magic when you have to deal with it. Mighty useful when you are running into entire hordes, not going to lie.” Tifa leaned back and sighed. “Well, no use in stalling any further. If we are unlucky, it will grow dark before we reach Oerba, and then it will be a whole different pain to get anywhere without getting jumped every other step.”

“Oh, you also have experience with getting ambushed over and over again?” Lightning laughed in earnest now. “It is ridiculous at times how many monsters seem to sniff you out once you have put down one group.”

“Especially when you run into Flans.” Tifa shuddered at the thought. “Honestly, for being ridiculous globs of ooze with faces on them, they are superb at giving you a hard time.”

“Well, at least they are color coded. Makes it a Hell lot easier to track which of the vengeful dessert platters is weak to what.”

Lightning got to her feet, briefly brushed off her pants and then led the way towards a narrow path which would allow them to get back down onto the Steppe. It would have been nice to ride on Chocobos on this occasion, but with so many enemies around, it would have been too much of a risk to ride the docile birds even a couple meters outside of their little sanctuary.

Tifa felt a tinge of nervousness flare up inside of her when they finally began sneaking across the Steppe. Lightning had given her what she called a “shroud”, some strange aerosol which supposedly helped keeping enemies from spotting them. She wasn’t quite convinced, but at least, it seemed to mask the smells. The canine-looking of their enemies definitely didn’t get too close in the first moments, but Tifa was constantly on the lookout. Lightning kept an eye to the skies, in case any of those damnable flapping menaces was keen on making a meal out of one of them, while Tifa tried to keep their path free of any four-legged menaces. If it wasn’t one of the Beast types with their breath weapons, then it would be a Behemoth, and Tifa really wasn’t in the mood for encountering one of those. Though, as far as she had understood, those could net them some nice bonuses with the locals of Oerba.

“Above you!” Lightning’s call came just at the right moment. With a powerful, sweeping arc, Tifa brought up her leg and rammed her foot hard against the side of an diving Amphisbaena’s head. The creature didn’t even have time to shriek as it was catapulted into a small ridge near them, which they had used as cover against several Uridimmu, which of course were now alerted and came bounding towards them. At least, Tifa thought in some quiet part of herself, lest she tempted fate, they had not yet attracted the attention of a roving band of Flans or a Tonberry.

The Amphisbaena recovered quite a bit more quickly than Tifa would have liked, but she was quickly getting into a damned good rhythm while smacking around the Uridimmus. The Beasts were fully intent on overwhelming them by sheer numbers, with how the seven individual beasts were attacking, but they apparently hadn’t the best of magic defenses. Tifa unleashed Thundaras whenever necessary, but it was still not without risk fighting like this. Additionally, she caught herself getting dazzled by Lightning’s fighting style, which seemed to move around freely between several very distinct stances and ability sets. She would have to ask her about this at some point, but right now, she had to make sure that she would be neither a hindrance to Lightning nor a nuisance in later battles.

“Got them down quick enough.” Lightning pulled out a strange device after the last monster had fallen and rummaged amongst the monsters, before something seemed to turn the monsters into pure light and drew them into the device. “Before you ask, I don’t know how this works, exactly, but it stores much of what I take on missions. Like this, I can actually carry a lot more gear than should be possible. It does deactivate at times so that nothing happens which would threaten the integrity… and that is about when I stopped listening to the explanation, because I felt like my brain was threatening to drip out of my ears.”

“Oh, one of those explanations.” Tifa chuckled and then kept an eye out for more trouble. “Where the one doing the explanation is so passionate about it, but then goes into details that don’t really have much to do with the thing you are trying to understand.”

Lightning gave a half nod and then pointed towards the chasm they were going towards. “Our bad luck just doubled. Behemoth, right in front of the Long Gui. I had hoped that we could catch the Long Gui while it was still asleep, but that seems to be over now.”

Tifa nudged Lightning in a manner that was meant to be encouraging, but it seemed that the pink-haired woman had taken it as a flirty gesture, as she very briefly blushed and then decidedly stepped to the side a little. “We’ll still manage. Come on. I have a good feeling about this one.”


End file.
